| BERKELEY, CA
- April 24 - Berkeley students will occupy a building and hold a sit-in on
the UC Berkeley campus at noon on Tuesday, April 24, 2001. As the assault of
Palestinians escalates in the Middle East, students are taking urgent direct
action to demand that the UC Regents sever the University’s connection to
the Israeli military regime.
Students for Justice in Palestine at Berkeley (SJP) will sit-in on the UC
Berkeley campus and will be joined by various campus organizations, members
of the Bay Area Activist community and well-known Berkeley professors. SJP
calls for an end to the University's investments in companies with
significant holdings in Israel. Preliminary findings indicate this amount to
be $6.4 billion out of the total portfolio worth $59 billion.
At the University of California's Regents meeting in Davis on April 12,
2001, SJP presented demands for divestment. The group requested a deadline
of April 22nd for the Regents to respond. This deadline has passed with no
response from the Regents. The rally and sit-in will reiterate these demands
and send a clear message to the Regents that students and people of
conscience oppose such irresponsible investment in the Israeli war machine.
SJP will wage its campaign for divestment from Israel until the Israeli
government dismantles its Apartheid policies that racially discriminate
against the indigenous Palestinian population. First and foremost, the
Israeli government must recognize its responsibility for the creation of the
Palestinian refugee problem and allow them their legal Right of Return. SJP
member Yalda Afshar claims Israeli Apartheid "is epitomized fundamentally by
Israel's Law of Return, which grants a Jew anywhere in the world full
immigration and citizenship rights, whereas Palestinians, exiled by force in
1948, have no such right." Afshar indicates that such racial distinction
violates numerous United Nations resolutions, its founding charter, and
various international conventions.
SJP bases its campaign on the precedent set by the 1980s Anti-Apartheid
movement, in which the University of California committed to anti-racist
policies and withdrew its investments from the South African economy. The
recent Israeli invasion and destruction of homes in Khan Younis resembles
previous Israeli aggression in the 1982 Sharon-headed massacre at Sabra and
Shatila. The parallels between Israeli and South African Apartheid are very
strong.
SJP is a diverse coalition of students, faculty, and community members
formed in October 2000 at the University of California, Berkeley with an
interest in the human rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle
for liberation under Israeli occupation. SJP also seeks to raise public
awareness in the United States about the plight of the Palestinian refugees.
SJP conducts education, programming, information distribution, and other
coordinated efforts in order to counterbalance anti-Palestinian biases in
the American media.
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